HOCKEY: Great Britain booked a date with Australia in the men’s hockey gold medal match on Sunday, after a terrific 6-0 victory over a determined USA.

Great Britain surged to a 4-0 half time lead with a clinical display of hockey in the first half.

Ross Gilham-Jones added another goal to his tournament tally when he opened the scoring in the 6th minute with a field goal and 20 minutes later Sam French and Phil Roper joined the party with field goals of their own.

A 3-0 lead soon became 4-0 when Great Britain captain Andrew Bull smashed home a penalty corner in the 32nd minute and led his side into the sheds with a very handy buffer.

The USA held the heads high at half time and despite the score being against them and began to put together some great patches of hockey in the second period.

The Great Britain defence continued to shine and prevent USA from finding a way back into the match.

47 minutes in Roper netted his second field goal to make it 5-0 and when Alan Forsyth’s 55th minute penalty corner was successful the writing was on the wall for USA.

Great Britain kept a clean sheet to record a 6-0 win from their final round robin match and took some very ominous looking form into Sunday.

“It was about performance today, we went out as a team, we set our goals and we achieved them which was really good to see,” Great Britain captain Andrew Bull happily said after the game. “We are looking to build on the performances we’ve recently had and hopefully finish the tournament with a bang."

USA head coach Chris Clements said despite what the scoreboard has read across their three matches, his boys have learnt many valuable lessons during the AYOF and are looking forward to their final game of the tournament on Sunday.

“(They are) understanding what elite international hockey is about, and I definitely feel that we’ve got players than can compete and play at this level and this environment we just need to expose ourselves to this more often,” Clements said.

USA’s bronze medal match with Malaysia starts at 10:30am on Sunday while Great Britain’s quest for gold against Australia begins at 11am.

Beau Greenway
Olympics.com.au

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